What was forgotten about our first day activity? As we were traveling through the slow part of Chicago we were going to cross to another highway. Dave’s GPS said to go right, even though we knew better we followed its guidance. Well it took us off road a eighth of a block but through a toll stop. The toll stop was unmanned and the right two slots were for the I-pass, a card reader for prepaid toll’s, we blew through the I-pass lanes, all three of us. Being second I noticed the mistake as they had a change booth to the left. Being the concerned citizens we are and having seen a sign that had a website indicating it can be used for paying toll offenses we logged on that evening. We three had to give a credit card number to pay the thirty cents that we didn’t deposit. We even got a think you from the state for our response, automated of course. We thought we will be coming back through there and they will probably photo catch our cars.
We hit the trail out of spendy Bar Harbor and to the north woods of Maine. The traffic was light and easy except for a couple of maneuvers. The border crossing went without a hitch. Where are you going, how long are you going to be gone, do you have any liquor or tobacco? I said a small bottle of wine and she said get going. We went up the street slowly and I passed a white Corvette, I said Hi, he said a real nice way to travel isn’t it? I said it sure was. We then proceeded to stop at the corner light, wrong lane for going straight ahead, but went anyhow. Picked up some New Brunswick material to read.
It is funny to travel at a 110 K/Hr, 70 MPH, but seems faster. We made good time to our Mariners Inn in Chance Bay, 10 miles outside St. John NB. It was about 7 miles in and off the road. Turns out to be on a bay with the high tides of the Bay of Fundy. Its highest tide is 53 feet, what a change of depth. The Inn was high off the bay with its ruggedness beneath us and the pines surrounding the small Inn. The accommodations were breath taking, rooms with lace this and that, bed facing the open window overlooking the bay. They had evening meals available and we decided to eat in.
But before that we decided to go to the reversing falls in St. John. During high tide the water rushes into the river at 2.2 million gallons per second. In a small narrows the water rushes around the large rocks and produces eddy currents and whirlpools. It is a neat sight. Shirleen saw Sam the seal in the bay. We then traveled to the city as we saw a city market. This market sells fresh meats, veggies, cheese, paintings, and much more. I struck up a conversation with a meat cutter, he said have you ever tried DULSE? I said what he said this and picked up a handful. I could see it was dried seaweed. I took some and began to chew it and chew it and chew it. Shirleen tried it but found a garbage container to discard it. It is salty and tough. The sign said: it is a vegetable grown at low tide, grown on rocks, harvested by hand and sun dried for 6 hours. They had it in bags and bulk. As the guy said you have to acquire a taste for it. They eat it like potato chips or toasted and used in soups and salads as a seasoning. It is harvested from June to November.
They have a nice city central park and its inhabitants were finding their spot for the night. A couple statues adorned the grounds along with a large metal cupola; the garden was decked out in many flower gardens. We then went past St John’s Church, an Anglican church made out of ships ballast. Four pretty balusters that supposedly had carved heads of many parishioners on its gables. Back to the Inn 25 minutes away, but a fun curvy road to follow.
We arrived in time for our 7 pm meal. We had placed the order before we all left for downtown. Shirleen had the haddock special, Pat the seafood bisque, Dave and Jim the haddock special and I a seafood – lobster, shrimp, scallops and haddock stuffed cannelloni with ricotta cheese. Wine to go around and Dave and Pat had a two layer chocolate cake with a filling of hazelnut and cheese filling. What a treat all had. The chef and a picture of the bay can be found at marinerstable.com. The night was cool and the patter of rain hit our sliding glass window sometime during the night. The breakfast was coffee and breads with delicious strawberry and orange marmalade jams. Off to Hawkesbury Nova Scotia. Jerr
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